Well, it's been four weeks of very strict carb restriction. No real physical activity (ophthalmologist visit is pending), ergo no carb loads yet.

Started cutting on Tuesday. I've been aiming for a reduction of calories from maintenance at around 4000 to 3000 or so (mostly by cutting back on fat). Of course, if you're looking at my spreadsheet, you'll notice I undercut that by a fair bit yesterday and the day before, but I'm going to pretend that was on purpose so I could mix things up.

If things go according to plan, I should show about four or five pounds of fat loss with no variance in muscle over the next two weeks, when filtered for noise. If things don't approach that, I'll add in the carb loads (might do that anyways if I can resume working out) and try it for another two weeks.

Also, mixing milk protein isolate and olive oil makes for a real appetite suppressant (by way of slow digestion). I think that if I had some soluble fiber to toss in, I might never have to eat again.

Well, it's been four weeks of very strict carb restriction. No real physical activity (ophthalmologist visit is pending), ergo no carb loads yet.

Started cutting on Tuesday. I've been aiming for a reduction of calories from maintenance at around 4000 to 3000 or so (mostly by cutting back on fat). Of course, if you're looking at my spreadsheet, you'll notice I undercut that by a fair bit yesterday and the day before, but I'm going to pretend that was on purpose so I could mix things up.

whats up with the ophthalmologist ?

If things go according to plan, I should show about four or five pounds of fat loss with no variance in muscle over the next two weeks, when filtered for noise. If things don't approach that, I'll add in the carb loads (might do that anyways if I can resume working out) and try it for another two weeks.

Also, mixing milk protein isolate and olive oil makes for a real appetite suppressant (by way of slow digestion). I think that if I had some soluble fiber to toss in, I might never have to eat again.

4000 calories maintenance ... that's awesome ... I'm jealous (getting older sucks). I just made a post about lentils. If you want to get your soluble fiber up without getting your carbs out of whack you might give them a try, if you havent already.

4000 calories maintenance ... that's awesome ... I'm jealous (getting older sucks). I just made a post about lentils. If you want to get your soluble fiber up without getting your carbs out of whack you might give them a try, if you havent already.

The question is the breakdown of the dietary fiber. Will check lentils against the lists I've managed to accumulate later.

Soluble fiber slows things down and increases nutrient absorption, which is what I want.
Insoluble speeds things up and decreases nutrient absorption, which is the opposite of what I want.

So if I get something with lots of both, it's a wash.

(Yes, I know, I'm a picky little bitch...)

Originally Posted by muddy

whats up with the ophthalmologist ?

He's going to be the guy who gives me the thumbs-up/thumbs-down for weight training. My head's held up pretty well for biking to/from work thus far, so I'm cautiously optimistic.

Speaking of which, I know that steady-state cardio is passé, but it's not like I can make it to work in a single Tabata, so... hoping that it doesn't jack up cortisol too much, because I don't want to take the fucking bus. **** the bus.

Originally Posted by Kintanon

He's in Canadia, it takes 2 months to get in to see an eye doctor.

Are you still having headaches Russ?

They come and go. I think I've identified a primary factor in their appearance, but this thread would go downhill pretty quickly if I actually said what it was. If anyone really wants to know, they can send me a PM.

So the lady at the health food store I hit up tried to sell me on psyllium seed husk as a source of soluble fiber.

PSH was fractionated into three components (Marlett & Fischer, 2001, 2002). Fraction A was alkali insoluble material and the yield was 171 (SE 4) mg/g; fraction B was gel-forming material and the yield was 575 (SE 16) mg/g; fraction C was a viscous, but not gel-forming material and the yield was 129 (SE 6) mg/g. We reported that PSH is almost all carbohydrate (902 mg/g)

Literally meaning 'fear of light', the symptom is best described as discomfort or pain in the eye due to light exposure. It is believed to be caused by a reflex resulting in histamine release in the iris and ciliary muscles. It is common in inflammatory eye conditions such as keratitis (cornea) and iritis, but also occurs in migraine, subarachnoid haemorrhage and meningitis. In milder cases it may be difficult to distinguish from glare or dazzle, which are of much less clinical significance

The results of these studies show (1, 2) that 1) the intravenous administration of mixtures of essential amino acids induces the release of insulin, 2) the phenomenon of amino acid-induced release of insulin does not depend upon the presence of leucine in the infusion mixture, and 3) the intravenous administration of individual essential amino acids also induces the release of insulin. However, there are large differences among essential amino acids in their capacity to stimulate the secretion of insulin.

This was a while ago, so maybe more recent study has managed to root out some of the confounds there. Then again, given what happened to the people they injected with methionine, I'm not sure there's been much more research along these lines since then.

Edit: And as a bonus...

The initial increases in blood glucose (range 0 to 43 mg per 100 ml) observed during the infusion of the various amino acid solutions may be due to gluconeogenesis from the infused amino acids. When arginine, a glucogenic amino acid, was administered, the mean of maximal increases in blood glucose was large (29 mg per 100 ml). There were no increases in blood glucose with the nonglucogenic amino acid leucine. However, the other 8 individual amino acids produced no major differences in increases in blood sugar, and there was not a good correlation between mean increases in blood glucose and their usual classification as to glucogenicity.

And when it comes to decoupling glucose and insulin... sounds like we need to round up some folks with full pancreatotomies?